EDITORIAL: Our country was built to survive division

Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 09:55 PM.

In moments of national tension, Americans often sigh and harken back to a day when they celebrated commonality rather than struggled with division.

When exactly those days were isn’t so easy to determine.

It wasn’t 150 years ago. In July 1863, pivotal moments in American history played out in a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg and a Mississippi River port called Vicksburg.

When it was all over, the most divisive moment in American history had reached its climax, and the Civil War’s outcome was virtually assured. The wound it left took many years to heal, and its final goal wasn’t achieved for another century.

Those good old days weren’t 50 years ago, either. Americans took to the streets to claim the basic rights they had been guaranteed by the Constitution and that thousands fought and died for 100 years earlier. And yet black Americans were denied those rights, as well as basic dignity, by legalized segregation. It took a long struggle to claim what was rightfully theirs.

The country convulsed during the decade of the 1960s with social upheaval ranging from the civil rights movement to the anti-war movement. The bitter divisions among Americans and the frustration building among many people for a variety of reasons manifested themselves in civil unrest and riots.

This time last year, the focus was on the harsh rhetoric of a campaign to elect the president of the United States. Some claimed politics had never been so dirty or hostile.

In moments of national tension, Americans often sigh and harken back to a day when they celebrated commonality rather than struggled with division.

When exactly those days were isn’t so easy to determine.

It wasn’t 150 years ago. In July 1863, pivotal moments in American history played out in a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg and a Mississippi River port called Vicksburg.

When it was all over, the most divisive moment in American history had reached its climax, and the Civil War’s outcome was virtually assured. The wound it left took many years to heal, and its final goal wasn’t achieved for another century.

Those good old days weren’t 50 years ago, either. Americans took to the streets to claim the basic rights they had been guaranteed by the Constitution and that thousands fought and died for 100 years earlier. And yet black Americans were denied those rights, as well as basic dignity, by legalized segregation. It took a long struggle to claim what was rightfully theirs.

The country convulsed during the decade of the 1960s with social upheaval ranging from the civil rights movement to the anti-war movement. The bitter divisions among Americans and the frustration building among many people for a variety of reasons manifested themselves in civil unrest and riots.

This time last year, the focus was on the harsh rhetoric of a campaign to elect the president of the United States. Some claimed politics had never been so dirty or hostile.

They, of course, weren’t around to see the smear campaign waged against Andrew Jackson’s wife over botched divorce proceedings with her first husband. They weren’t there when opponents discovered Grover Cleveland’s illegitimate child.

The times when the country wasn’t divided by internal factions could hardly be considered the good old days either. Americans rarely become harmoniously united unless there is a threat.

Sometimes the threat comes from within, like the Great Depression. Economic collapse helped unite the country. But it’s hard to fondly recall 25 percent unemployment and the financial chaos that came with it. People might have leaned on one another and helped one another through the crisis. But few who lived through it would want to revisit those days.

The country has probably never been as united as it was during World War II. Thousands of bodies buried beneath foreign soil are a high price to pay for unity. The men who fought the enemies of freedom are proud of their service, but they hold no romantic illusions about the bloody conflict they took part in.

In retrospect, the present day doesn’t look so bad after all. Perhaps the true miracle we should celebrate is America’s ability not only to survive the divisions that afflict it, but to prosper despite them. It is the thing that our enemies most fear, and our friends most admire.